I wanted to make sure everyone saw the news over the weekend that Fareed Zakaria gave back the Humphrey Medal he was awarded a few years ago by the ADL in response to their opposition to the Mosque/Cultural Center complex being built near Ground Zero.
Jeff Jarvis calls the Google-Verizon deal to end the open Internet the Google-Verizon Munich Pact, which is a bit inflammatory but unfortunately pretty much captures it.
Details are still very sketchy, but reports out of Alaska indicate that among the eight people believed to be onboard a plane that crashed Monday night near Dillingham was former Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK).
The Anchorage newspaper reports:
A woman who answered the phone at the Anchorage home of retired Air Force Gen. Joe Ralston, a good friend of Stevens, said Ralston was with Stevens’ wife, Catherine, comforting her and trying to find out what was going on.
Ongoing updates below: Read More
Sorting through the various reports we’re getting directly from Alaska and from other media outlets, here’s where things stand:
There is still no official confirmation that former Sen. Ted Stevens was on board the plane that crashed sometime Monday evening in a remote area of Alaska. However, at this point everyone seems to be working on the assumption that the plane that went down was the one he was on. Stevens was reported to be en route to a lodge owned by the same company that owns the plane that crashed. I’ve been looking for any information that contradicts the reports that this was the plane Stevens was on, and nothing points in any other direction. Read More
TPM has confirmed that DC lobbyist Jim Morhard was also a passenger on the plane that crashed in Alaska. Katherine Hennessey Gronberg, vice president of Morhard & Associates, says she doesn’t know anything about Morhard’s condition. Morhard was chief of staff of the Senate Appropriations Committee from 2003-05, when Stevens was chairman of the committee. Politico first reported that Morhard was on the plane.
A look back at the 1978 plane crash that Ted Stevens survived but that took the life of his first wife, Ann.
The aerospace company EADS North America confirms in a statement that its CEO, former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe, was among those on board the plane that crashed in Alaska last night. The company says it has no word on O’Keefe’s condition.
A preliminary report from the FAA lists eight passengers on board, of which 5 were killed and one seriously injured. The condition of the remaining 2 passengers is listed as unknown. But CNN is reporting that, according to the FAA in Alaska, two survivors had serious injuries and two had minor injuries.
Late Update: OK, Rachel Slajda just got off the phone with an understandably frazzled spokesperson for the Alaska regional office of the FAA. They are still not sure if there were 8 or 9 people on board the plane. They believe there were five fatalities, but are not positive of that number yet either, so they are calling it “several fatalities.” There were survivors, some with minor injuries, some with major injuries.
A plane full of VIPs going down in Alaska recalls, of course, the 1972 plane crash that killed House Majority Leader Hale Boggs and Rep. Nick Begich. The subsequent histories of both men’s heirs are well known. Boggs’ wife Lindy succeeded him in Congress and held that seat for another 18 years after his death. Of the Boggs’ children, the best known in DC political circles are lobbyist Tommy Boggs and NPR’s Cokie Roberts. Begich was succeeded by Don Young, who still holds the seat. Begich’s son Mark defeated Ted Stevens in 2008 and is now the junior senator from Alaska.